The Nation Newspaper

Category: Transportation

  • Putting an end to Apapa gridlock

    The man-made crisis on the Apapa Port corridor may have defied human solution, but automation experts said it is not beyond control, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

    Can there ever be a solution to the ‘organised chaos’ that the seemingly intractable traffic gridlock at Apapa, Lagos, has become?

    While Nigerians continue to agonise over the seeming incapacitation of the governments – both federal and the state – to tackle the nightmare that the traffic has become, some experts say, because it is a ‘man-made chaos’, its solution lies in thinking out of the box.

    Access to Ports

    Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief early last month when the Presidential Taskforce on resolving the traffic gridlock swung into action. Their smile has since gone ashen, as the status quo on the road has returned.

    Access to the two Lagos ports remained virtually non-existent. Road and rail transit to and from the ports remained comatose.

    This was despite the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms Hadiza Bala Usman’s efforts to collaborate with the private sector to salvage the situation.

    Experts’ suggestions

    One way that could help the situation, the experts argued, by bringing in consultants. They held that a consultant would help ease the traffic.

    One of such expert is Mr Tunde Olaosun, Chief Executive Officer Hermonfield Limited. An insider who had worked with APM Terminal and EML Terminals before going into private practice as a logistics automation consultant, Olaosun said understanding the inner workings of the ports was central to resolving the gridlock and other attendant crises that have continued to fester at the ports since it was concessioned in 2006.

    For him, the Apapa and the Tin can Island ports’gridlock would continue and may grow worse, if the government continues to listen to the wrong people.

    Apart from adding to the cost of doing business, the gridlock has made the ports unattractive, and continued to ridicule Nigeria and Lagos as the preferred economic hub not only in the West African sub-region, but also in Africa.

    Olaosun like other concerned stakeholders contended that the crisis was compounded by the fallouts of the concessioning and the removal of regulatory powers from the ports landlord – the Nigerian Ports Authority – and the lack of appropriate regulation to enforce standards and discipline at the ports.

    He said: “The ports at inception was designed as a multi-purpose port that was intended to be run by one operator, but ever since the concessioning, Apapa now plays host to five terminal operators sharing one gate.

    “Being a multi-purpose ports, there are different types of truck requirements.The truck requirement for a bulk terminal is different from a container or general cargo terminal. However, the need of every terminal varies, and based on the concession agreement, each of the terminals is supposed to submit to the NPA, 24 hours ahead, their truck requirements for proper traffic management.”

    Experts blamed the gridlock on some issues, among them access control and insider round tripping in the port as a result of activities in the port area.

    Speaking on access control, stakeholders said four of the five operators at Apapa port share one access gate. There are the APM Terminal, EML Consortium, Green View, Apapa Bulk Terminal. While the last has its own access gate, the  thers use one.

    They contended if the gridlock continued unchecked, it would pose a threat to food security, because the movement in the port is diverse. “As you see import containers trying to gain acess to the ports, so also are exports containers. Some trucks laden with exports have been stranded in the queue for over eight weeks. What margin would be left for a farmer into export business, especially if he had to borrow from banks? When they cannot pay, the banks go after them, get them jailed, thereby preventing them from farming.The problem would be compounded with poor import inflow, which may lead to food shortage and scarcity.”

    According to the stakeholders, while the Federal Government concentrates on fixing the roads and opening the rail access to the ports, which would improve freight movement, one of the key solutions to the Apapa problem is the setting up of marshalling yards from where trucks movements could be controlled.

    Olaosun believed that rather than build a truck park, which the Lagos State government is doing, it should have utilised any of the existing parks, owned by  operators as a marshalling yard, from where trucks, through a call up system, could  move into the state for transition to holding bays, which should be within the ports from where they would easily move to ships for loading.

    For him, a marshalling yard that controls movements in and out of the yard would provide more funds for the government than providing a truck park, which would in a short time become a junk yard.

    According to him, the regulation is for truck operators to have holding bays for the smooth running of their operations.That is why the state government should not compete with operators in the provision of holding bays, but to control the fluidity of movement within the state enroute the port.

    Olaosun said, based on what is on ground in the state, Lagos could be making N27 billion every six months.

    ‘Partner Multinationals’

    “Coca Cola, Guinness, and so on, have truck parks which they are not using regularly. All that is needed to be done is have an MoU with them, put an automation in place that would address the scheduling system at the ports.”

    He believed if the government  listened to experts, resolving the traffic situation would not be easy.

    Patrick Adenusi, a maritime operator, said the ports can feed the nation, if activities in and around them are properly structured and regulations strictly enforced.

    He said serial abuse of privileges and powers were the bane of effective operationalisation of the ports, adding that if bottlenecks to strict enforcement of the regulations were in place and leakages blocked, more revenue would stream in for the country.

    Corroborating this assertion, Olaosun disclosed that just for streamlining the rate of demurrage alone, Nigeria could be saving about $50 billion yearly, adding that in 2013, APM Terminals’  profit outstripped the nation’s budget.

    According to him, the solution remains putting the right committee in place.

    “If this is done, within six months, giving the information at the disposal of such a committee, they should be able to resolve the crisis because they would know the areas to check, where to look at, regulations to check, and areas to beef up.”

     ‘Encourage patronage of ICDs’

    He said the government should encourage the patronage of Inland Container Depots (ICDs) by ensuring strict compliance to the rules that has hitherto shut them out of business. He claimed that the big terminal operators have formed a cartel and are creaming off the country as a result of planlessness over the years.

    If the ICDs are functional, if you take your containers from them, you are bound to return them, thus removing between 70 and 85 percent of trucks, which are on the roads trying to gain access the ports just to return empty containers to the ports.

    Experts said no shipping firm would voluntarily agree to operate a holding bay to avoid what they call double handling charges, which means paying port duties for handing cargoes from their ships and other handling charges, which importers pay in dollars to operators.

    Stakeholders canvassed the appointment of a neutal regulator for the ports to sanitise the ports and ensure that all operators are beaten to line.

    Olaosun observed that this had  been difficult to adopt because operators were owned by former leaders by the government.

    “Soon, these terminal operators would no longer enjoy the cover that gives them these unfettered privileges, because these men are aging and are losing their edge. Soon, they would no longer be able to prevent the change that is gathering steam in the maritime sector,”he added.

  • Putting an end to Apapa gridlock

    The man-made crisis on the Apapa Port corridor may have defied human solution, but automation experts said it is not beyond control, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

    Can there ever be a solution to the ‘organised chaos’ that the seemingly intractable traffic gridlock at Apapa, Lagos, has become?

    While Nigerians continue to agonise over the seeming incapacitation of the governments – both federal and the state – to tackle the nightmare that the traffic has become, some experts say, because it is a ‘man-made chaos’, its solution lies in thinking out of the box.

    Access to Ports

    Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief early last month when the Presidential Taskforce on resolving the traffic gridlock swung into action. Their smile has since gone ashen, as the status quo on the road has returned.

    Access to the two Lagos ports remained virtually non-existent. Road and rail transit to and from the ports remained comatose.

    This was despite the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms Hadiza Bala Usman’s efforts to collaborate with the private sector to salvage the situation.

    Experts’ suggestions

    One way that could help the situation, the experts argued, by bringing in consultants. They held that a consultant would help ease the traffic.

    One of such expert is Mr Tunde Olaosun, Chief Executive Officer Hermonfield Limited. An insider who had worked with APM Terminal and EML Terminals before going into private practice as a logistics automation consultant, Olaosun said understanding the inner workings of the ports was central to resolving the gridlock and other attendant crises that have continued to fester at the ports since it was concessioned in 2006.

    For him, the Apapa and the Tin can Island ports’gridlock would continue and may grow worse, if the government continues to listen to the wrong people.

    Apart from adding to the cost of doing business, the gridlock has made the ports unattractive, and continued to ridicule Nigeria and Lagos as the preferred economic hub not only in the West African sub-region, but also in Africa.

    Olaosun like other concerned stakeholders contended that the crisis was compounded by the fallouts of the concessioning and the removal of regulatory powers from the ports landlord – the Nigerian Ports Authority – and the lack of appropriate regulation to enforce standards and discipline at the ports.

    He said: “The ports at inception was designed as a multi-purpose port that was intended to be run by one operator, but ever since the concessioning, Apapa now plays host to five terminal operators sharing one gate.

    “Being a multi-purpose ports, there are different types of truck requirements.The truck requirement for a bulk terminal is different from a container or general cargo terminal. However, the need of every terminal varies, and based on the concession agreement, each of the terminals is supposed to submit to the NPA, 24 hours ahead, their truck requirements for proper traffic management.”

    Experts blamed the gridlock on some issues, among them access control and insider round tripping in the port as a result of activities in the port area.

    Speaking on access control, stakeholders said four of the five operators at Apapa port share one access gate. There are the APM Terminal, EML Consortium, Green View, Apapa Bulk Terminal. While the last has its own access gate, the  thers use one.

    They contended if the gridlock continued unchecked, it would pose a threat to food security, because the movement in the port is diverse. “As you see import containers trying to gain acess to the ports, so also are exports containers. Some trucks laden with exports have been stranded in the queue for over eight weeks. What margin would be left for a farmer into export business, especially if he had to borrow from banks? When they cannot pay, the banks go after them, get them jailed, thereby preventing them from farming.The problem would be compounded with poor import inflow, which may lead to food shortage and scarcity.”

    According to the stakeholders, while the Federal Government concentrates on fixing the roads and opening the rail access to the ports, which would improve freight movement, one of the key solutions to the Apapa problem is the setting up of marshalling yards from where trucks movements could be controlled.

    Olaosun believed that rather than build a truck park, which the Lagos State government is doing, it should have utilised any of the existing parks, owned by  operators as a marshalling yard, from where trucks, through a call up system, could  move into the state for transition to holding bays, which should be within the ports from where they would easily move to ships for loading.

    For him, a marshalling yard that controls movements in and out of the yard would provide more funds for the government than providing a truck park, which would in a short time become a junk yard.

    According to him, the regulation is for truck operators to have holding bays for the smooth running of their operations.That is why the state government should not compete with operators in the provision of holding bays, but to control the fluidity of movement within the state enroute the port.

    Olaosun said, based on what is on ground in the state, Lagos could be making N27 billion every six months.

    ‘Partner Multinationals’

    “Coca Cola, Guinness, and so on, have truck parks which they are not using regularly. All that is needed to be done is have an MoU with them, put an automation in place that would address the scheduling system at the ports.”

    He believed if the government  listened to experts, resolving the traffic situation would not be easy.

    Patrick Adenusi, a maritime operator, said the ports can feed the nation, if activities in and around them are properly structured and regulations strictly enforced.

    He said serial abuse of privileges and powers were the bane of effective operationalisation of the ports, adding that if bottlenecks to strict enforcement of the regulations were in place and leakages blocked, more revenue would stream in for the country.

    Corroborating this assertion, Olaosun disclosed that just for streamlining the rate of demurrage alone, Nigeria could be saving about $50 billion yearly, adding that in 2013, APM Terminals’  profit outstripped the nation’s budget.

    According to him, the solution remains putting the right committee in place.

    “If this is done, within six months, giving the information at the disposal of such a committee, they should be able to resolve the crisis because they would know the areas to check, where to look at, regulations to check, and areas to beef up.”

     ‘Encourage patronage of ICDs’

    He said the government should encourage the patronage of Inland Container Depots (ICDs) by ensuring strict compliance to the rules that has hitherto shut them out of business. He claimed that the big terminal operators have formed a cartel and are creaming off the country as a result of planlessness over the years.

    If the ICDs are functional, if you take your containers from them, you are bound to return them, thus removing between 70 and 85 percent of trucks, which are on the roads trying to gain access the ports just to return empty containers to the ports.

    Experts said no shipping firm would voluntarily agree to operate a holding bay to avoid what they call double handling charges, which means paying port duties for handing cargoes from their ships and other handling charges, which importers pay in dollars to operators.

    Stakeholders canvassed the appointment of a neutal regulator for the ports to sanitise the ports and ensure that all operators are beaten to line.

    Olaosun observed that this had  been difficult to adopt because operators were owned by former leaders by the government.

    “Soon, these terminal operators would no longer enjoy the cover that gives them these unfettered privileges, because these men are aging and are losing their edge. Soon, they would no longer be able to prevent the change that is gathering steam in the maritime sector,”he added.

  • MTN Donates Ultra-modern Ferry Terminal to Lagos State

    Lagos has been described as the home of aquatic splendor and as part of efforts to harness the potentials of water transportation, MTN Nigeria has donated a world class ferry terminal to the state government at a colourful ceremony in Falomo, Ikoyi on August 30, 2018.

    The new Five Cowrie Creek Terminal was built at the site of a former refuse dump near the lagoon, close to MTN’s headquarters. After seven years of work, the jetty will now serve as the headquarters of the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), and includes a berthing area for up to 20 boats, ticketing/waiting areas, a restaurant and a rooftop section with a lovely view of Ikoyi and Victoria Island.

    In addition to the terminal, a multi-level carpark (with the capacity to house 800 cars) was also commissioned by the State Governor. This carpark was also built and operated by MTN Nigeria for the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC), under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

    Both facilities were commissioned by the State Attorney-General, Adeniji Kazeem (who represented Governor Akinwunmi Ambode) in the presence of excited LASWA staff, state government officials and some traditional rulers.

    The MTN delegation to the event was led by the Chief Operating Officer of MTN Nigeria, Mazen Mroue; the Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Lynda Saint Nwafor and the Customer Services Executive, Ugonwa Nwoye among others.

    In his speech, the governor said the completion of the new Terminal project was a demonstration of the state government’s resolve to ensure the development of the water transport sector in the state.

    He praised MTN for its investment, support and commitment to ensuring that both projects were delivered, while calling on corporate organisations to partner with the state government in its efforts to improve public infrastructure.

  • As Third Mainland Bridge reopens

    After a four- day integrity test on the Third Mainland Bridge, the government reopened the facility on Sunday. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE examines efforts to work on the bridge.

    The Third Mainland Bridge was reopened 5pm on Sunday by the Federal and the Lagos State governments. It was some eight hours earlier than the 00.00 hours (12 a.m.) deadline earlier slated for the exercise.

    The early reopening was received with huge excitement across the state as motorists heaved a sigh of relief at the multiplier effect of the reopening on travel pattern.

    The last 72 hours had been tortuous for motorists, who spent several hours on the alternative routes identified by the state government.

    Despite the huge deployment of policemen and traffic agencies to manage the fallout of the traffic, it remained a major crisis all through the weekend, with many corporate firms with offices on the mainland directing its workers to resume in those offices and avoid the Lagos Island if the bridge was not reopened on schedule by the government at the weekend.

    For a country noted for its horrible maintenance culture, the seriousness with which the government had attended to auditing the integrity of the Third Mainland Bridge has elicited renewed interest.

    The last time the bridge went through a comprehensive maintenance was 2012, when the then government of President Goodluck Jonathan closed the bridge down for four months between July and November.

    The three-day closure, which it said was needed for integrity checks, was  meant to again check all the 11 expansion joints for wears and tears, in order to eventually determine the kind of maintenance that would be needed to be carried out.

    Each of the expansion joints was comprehensively tested during the exercise while required remedial works have been noted, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Transportation Dr Taiwo Salaam observed on Sunday.

    Assessing the scope and success of the work, Salaam said: “We finished work on all the joints by 2.30pm on Sunday and the bridge was shortly thereafter opened again for vehicular traffic.”

    According to him, it is after the completion of the exercise that experts in the Federal Ministry of Works are going to meet on the reports collated during this three- day exercise to know the type of remedial action that the bridge would need this time around as well as the time duration for such an exercise.

    The Federal Controller of Works, Fred Adedamola Kuti, said the government had returned to the 12 kilometre long bridge because some of the bridge’s expansion joints have started showing signs of stress.

    Kuti further assured that a more comprehensive test would be carried out on the bridge,   that after the surface work, divers would go under the bridge to determine the wellbeing of the foundation, beams, piers and the stanchions.

    On May 4, this year, the Federal Executive Council had approved $53 million (about N18.8 billion) for a comprehensive maintenance of the Third Mainland Bridge.

    The required maintenance, which is expected to last for 27 months according to the Minister of Power Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola, is to be handled by the Italian company Borini Prono.

    Detailing the magnitude of the construction to be carried out and the reason repairs will last for 27 months,Fashola said the project will involve the replacement of 33 piles at the first phase. A total of 177 piles would be strengthened in all and expansion joints linking the bridge together would be assessed with a view to replacing the obsolete ones.

    Happenings in other lands

    Government’s commitment to ensure the wellbeing of the bridge was validated with the recent collapse of the Genoa Morandi Bridge in Italy early in the month.

    Eleven years ago, an eight-land interstate highway bridge over the Mississippi River also collapsed in Minneapolis, killing 13 people.

    The Financial Times asserted after the Genoa disaster that Italy officials knew of the impending disaster six months before it collapsed but did nothing to limit traffic on the sick bridge.

    Like Morandi bridge, which killed at least 38 people, the Minneapolis bridge was opened in 1967.

    Just as the US National Transportation Safety Board  concluded that a design flaw in the bridge had contributed to its collapse in 2007, so are Italian prosecutors investigating whether the Genoa disaster was not as a result of a similar cause. In each case, the volume of traffic passing over the bridge in the years before its collapsed was much greater than had been foreseen during its construction in the 1960s.

    Similar trend, especially in traffic volume, which was fingered in the above instances has started manifesting on the third Mainland Bridge.

    While the volume of vehicles at the point of construction was less than 10,000 vehicle count on the Third Mainland Bridge, as at August it is said to be close to 700,000 per day.

    Disclosing this last week, Salaam said: “On the average, 652,800 vehicles use the bridge daily”, a development which makes remedial work on the bridge extremely imperative to prevent its collapse.

    The $1 billion bridge completed in 1990, and reputed as the second longest bridge in Africa and the longest in West Africa, began to exhibit signs of stress in 2006, when commuters began to report that the bridge was vibrating. Remedial works began on different portions of the bridge, leading to partial closures at different times in 2007 and 2008, while a maintenance work was carried out in 2012.

    The Director of Highways and Bridges in the Federal Ministry of Works, Adetokunbo Shogbesan, assured that the maintenance test on the Third Mainland Bridge is aimed at giving a comprehensive facelift to the bridge.

    He said most of the bridges in the state, built by the Federal Government have between 50 to 60 years lifespan. “If these bridges are better maintained, and human abuses are minimized, they could last even longer.

    Comparing the government’s response to what happened in Italy, Shogbesan said the Italian government neglected maintenance culture. They failed to carry out regular integrity test, which the Nigerian government continued to carry out from time to time.

    “We will continue to assure Nigerians that the government is committed to ensuring that integrity tests will continue on all the bridges every five to 10 years, while we would continue to appeal to the government to help ensure that dead weights on the bridges are evacuated before they endanger the wellbeing of the bridges.”

    Salaam confirmed that the Federal Government has continued to carry out routine maintenance of all its bridge assets in the state. He said Eko Bridge, which was the oldest, construction of which started in 1950, the Carter Bridge and the Lekki-Ikoyi Bridge, are all in stable shape.

    He assured Lagosians that the government is working on a multi-pronged approached aimed at evacuating the trailers and tankers off the roads and bridges, to a much organised holding bay, from where they would move upon a call up system to Apapa to either lift petroleum products or drop their empty containers.

    After the trailers were evacuated from the bridges, the government, he said, would conduct a comprehensive audit of wellbeing on all the bridges to know the impact of these dead weights on them as well as carry out comprehensive repair needed to keep them fit again.

    The Commissioner for Transportation Ladi Lawanson, who thanked Lagosians for their perseverance, said the government would continue to work in their collective interest.

    He disclosed that the government is determined to promote waterway transportation, adding that concrete actions would begin to manifest on the waterways in the next two years.

    He said government is dredging its waterways, cleaning the waterways of all ship wrecks, charting water routes, and bringing in new boats. He disclosed that discussion is at advanced stage with investors to commence commercial passenger operation on the waterways.

    “The Lagos State Government is determined to shift attention from the roads to the waterways. In the next two years, Lagosians would begin to see our actions in this direction, as all negotiations would have crystallised and begin to manifest,” Lawanson said.

    Though both governments, still kept the date of actual repair work on the bridge under wraps, it is almost certain that it would not occur until the trailers and tankers that had seized the bridges were moved out of the roads to holding bays.

  • Waiting for the Blue Line Light Rail

    The Lagos State Government has again changed the take-off date for the Blue Line Light Rail, which is expected to address the transport problem in the metropolis. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE writes.

    The Lagos State Government has said commercial train service would begin on its flagship Blue line light rail project in 2022.

    What this means is that Lagosians would wait four more years to get its dream metro line and those living along that corridor from Mile 2 to Okokomaiko have four more years to cope with the horrors that a project of that magnitude may inflict on their lives.

    It was the fourth time Governor Akinwunmi Ambode would be shifting the deadline for the project since he assumed office three years ago. Inspecting the project on July 16, 2015, the governor had pledged to hand it over to Lagosians in 12 months.

    Five months later, the governor shifted the completion date to December 2016, and in November 2016, he again altered the deadline to 2019. In August 2018, after 10 years, the deadline was again shifted to 2022, perhaps making it, Ambode’s parting gift to Lagosians.

    With its 24 million population 18 million of who commute from one point to another daily, an almost absolute reliance on road/motorised mode of transportation, experts argued, have remained the state’s major drawback.

    Despite Ambode’s huge investment in expanding transportation infrastructure, and a robust bus reform that comes with modern bus terminals taking shape across the state, the concentration on road, experts averred, would only redistribute the pains of transportation as traffic gridlocks shifts from the city centres to inner roads, with a traffic pattern made worse by bad state of roads.

    A World Bank 2015 statistics had shown that the state loses over two billion hours yearly, to gridlock.

     

    The beginning

    This perhaps may not have been the case, had attempts to put the state on the global map of light rail users in the 80s not been truncated.

    Responding to a Federal Government transportation study carried out in 1974, which warned of an impending crisis and huge traffic jams if multi-modal transportation system was not put in place, the then Lateef Jakande administration,  in July 16, 1983, embarked on the Lagos Metroline project, at the cost of N689m.

    The first phase of the project, which was to have 30 trains, each running 28.5 kilometres on raised concrete tracks from Marina to Agege, was slated for completion in July 1986. It was terminated two years after take-off and a year to the completion of the first phase of the project.

    The trains were projected to carry 88,000 passengers to and fro per hour and about 2,288,000 passengers in 16 hours, which at the time was about half the population of Lagos.

    The Jakande Lagos Metro line, was one of the 30 similar ones being constructed in various cities across the world at the time, and handled by Interinfra, a French firm. Its scraping by the Federal Government cost the state some $78m and an opportunity to fix the transportation architecture.

    Had it not been truncated, the state would have  provided only N21.05 million of the project’s total sum.

    The Lagos Metro Line Limited (LML), a limited liability company inaugurated in 1979 and registered in 1980, was expected to break even and generate its own funds by its fourth year of operation, having a revenue of N62.5m per year at an operating cost of N12.5m, with the surplus used to service its short and long-term loans.

    If traffic was emerging as the headache in the 80s , it had become an ugly phenomenon by the turn of the century, leaving former Governor and APC’s National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who was elected in 1999 to mull a return to the metroline in 2000. Though renamed Lagos light rail project or Eko Rail, in 2003, actual development did not begin until 2008, The initial proposal for the project was $135m and the project was incorporated into the greater Lagos Urban Transportation Project (LUTP), being implemented by the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (LAMATA).

    The idea was to have the government build two flagship rail lines – Blue and Red Lines, while seven more lines codenamed: Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Purple, Brown and Orange lines are to be investors driven.

    The 27km (17 miles) Blue Line, which the state has exerted more energy on, is to connect Okokomaiko to Marina. In April 2008, the state government approved N70b for the construction of the first phase from Mile 2 to Marina, to China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), with an estimated completion date of 2011.

    This was pushed to 2013, when funding became impaired and the government had to seek a $200 million loan from the World Bank, which was eventually blocked by the Federal Government. The failure to secure the World Bank loan further pushed the deadline to 2015, and  led to government resolving to self finance the project, but it sought investors to operate and maintain the lines after completion on concession agreement.

    The original plan from Okokomaiko to Marina is to comprise a total of 13 stations. These are:  Marina, Ebute Ero, Iddo, Iganmu, Alaba, Mile 2, Festac, Alakija, Trade Fair, Volkswagen, LASU and Okokomaiko, while the first phase is to have four stations at Mile 2, National Theatre Alaba and Iganmu, all is almost completed.

    The project on completion is expected to carry 1.6 million passengers daily, offer life-impacting benefits to commuters as quality of life will improve, with commuters enjoying faster travel time which is projected to drop by over 400 per cent (from 2-5hrs travel time to 37mins); passenger waiting time for public transport will also reduce significantly. The traffic gridlock currently being experienced on the Okokomaiko to Marina axis will reduce considerably, while economic activities along Lagos -Badagry axis will considerably improve. Environmental pollution will reduce by about 12 per cent. None of these promises have been fulfilled.

    A former Deputy Governor of CBN Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, bemoaned  the rising cost the deadline shifts on both the government, and the people.

    Mailafia, told The Guardian that the delays are eroding the benefit that would have accrued to commuters if the train had become operational.

    He said: “Though I do not have a complete picture of the total costs of the Lagos rail project, I do know, for example, that the 27 km Blue Line is estimated to cost $1.2b. When you divide that amount over 27km, what you get is an average cost of $44, 444 per km.”

     

    Other lands

    President Muhammadu Buhari recently inaugurated a light rail constructed for the Abuja metro by the FCTA. The project, like Lagos Blue line began in 2008.

    Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Ethiopia were few of the African countries which have embraced the light rail system and have continued to enjoy its multiplier effect on their transportation architecture.

    The Cairo Metro, which took off after the first and second phases of the Lagos Metroline had taken off had become a success story.

    From just a single line in the 80s, Egypt would commission its fourth line in 2019 and deliver it by 2022.

    Ethiopia which is another contemporary of the Lagos Metroline, is another with a dazzling success story on the light rail. The Addis Ababa Rail, a 17km (11 miles) line from the city centre to industrial areas in the south of the city, has been running since it was opened on September  20,2015, and service began on November 9, 2015. The total length of both lines is 31.6 kilometres (19.6 miles), with 39 stations.

    In Algeria, Alstom-manufactured Citadis trams have started commercial operations at Sidi Bel Abbes, a city located in the north-western part of Algeria since December 2013.

    Morrocco opened its light rail system with a 19.5km (12.1miles) network in 23 May 2011

    Construction of the network began in February 2007, opened for commercial operation on May 23, 2011, a seven-kilometer extension also started in January last 2017.

     

    Agony and Hope

    An Orile resident, Lagos, Adebanwi Salaudeen said the construction of the road and rail line has taken too long to be completed. He noted that when completed the rail would help many who live around the area to connect to the Island. He wondered why the project would take 14 years to be completed.

    Already, PDP, said the party may subject the project to probe. It alleged the Blue Light rail is becoming a drain pipe on the state’s economy.

    The Transportation Commissioner, Mr Ladi Lawanson, said the new contract is a continuation and not a cancellation of the existing one. He said Ambode government has spent close to 200m Euros on the project since 2015 and needed to shop for fresh funds to prevent the project from stagnating.

    “The government was mindful not to go into deep borrowing which will become an albatross on the state’s economy,” he said on Thursday.

    Lawanson said putting the funds together, providing independent power system and bringing all the technical components of the project together had pushed the completion date of the project to 2022.

    “Before now, what was done was civil works,” the commissioner explained, noting that “other components, including signal, electrical and rolling stock had not been covered.”

    LAMATA’s spokesman Kolawole Ojelabi disclosed that the project was delayed due to political meddle-someness and third party delays.

    Ojelabi, an Assistant Director, laid the major blame on what he called “third party issues,” adding; “it (the project) was supposed to go through Iddo, but the alignment had to be changed.

    “Initially we had to battle with clearing of wreckages discovered on the right of way. What we have been doing before now is fixed infrastructure and the just signed contract is to address the issue of movable infrastructure such as the train engines, the rolling stock itself, communication, signaling and the rest of it.”

    Ojelabi said while the project is 60 percent completed between Mile 2 and the National Theatre, it has gone by about 70 percent from National Theatre to Marina. The project is in all, about 80 percent completed.

    He said Alscom is expected to come up with its design for the movable assets. “The contract has been signed, so what we are waiting for is for the contractor to come up with its design which would guide the implementation of the project.”

    The Alstom SA director, Mr Guy Jean-Pierre, assured the company  would deliver a Blue Line that would be passenger’s delight. He said Alstom AS would bring on board required expertise and experience in rail system. Only if he knew that that promise is coming 14 years late.

     

     

  • Awaiting new Lagos buses

    Mercedes Benz Brazilian Daimler (MB do Brazil) is set to deliver 200 buses to Lagos by month end. The buses, says the government, are part of the first batch of 800 needed to flagoff the new bus operation. A test run of the initiative may begin by the fourth quarter of the year, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

    When they arrive by monthend in Lagos, Mercedez do Brasil’s 200’s large capacity buses will make history as the biggest order ever by any state government to strengthen its public transport fleet.

    The order, a top official confirmed in a statement, will assist in solving transportation problem in the megacity.

    “MB do Brasil is very pleased about the large order to the most populous country in Africa,” Roberto Leoncini, the company’s Vice President Sales & Marketing, said.

    He described Lagos and indeed Nigeria as the export strength of the Brazilian Daimler subsidiary.

    Leoncini confirmed that the buses, meant for urban passenger transport, which was the company’s biggest order in the last 10 years, would be delivered to the Coscharis Group, its Nigerian outlet.

    This has given more verve to the state’s readiness to jump-start its land transport reform dream, which had almost gone comatose since Governor Akinwunmi Ambode unveiled an ambitious move to take a N100 billion bond to midwife a bus reform initiative early last year.

    The initiative hopes to replace the rickety yellow buses with new, modern, Eco3 ones, which among other benefits, are to be more passenger-friendly, safer, readily available and affordable, and above all the flagship of public sector driven transportation initiative.

    The governor said the bond would  address the three basic components of the initiative: provision of support terminals infrastructure, 10 of which, planned for the first phase, are in various stages of completion; and acquisition of 5,000 large-to-medium capacity air-conditioned buses, which would be injected over a three years (with 800 to be acquired in the first phase to kick-start the project).

    The third leg is the training of professional drivers and the acquisition of Intelligent Transport System (ITS), for a seamless operation of its rolling stock and travel convenience of commuters.

    He disclosed that the buses would start operation last February and at the inauguration of the Ikeja Bus Terminal a month later, applauded President Muhammadu Buhari for  approving import waivers for the state to bring in the buses proposed to run the new scheme.

    Available data from the Ministry of Transportation shows the rickety yellow buses account for about three million out of the seven million vehicles on the state’s roads.

    With its 23 million population, where 12 million people depend on rickety private commercial buses and about six million move from one point to the other on foot, providing acceptable, affordable and comfortable means of transportation for the common man has remained a major headache for successive governments.

    Ambode said he would inject 5,000 buses to replace the 14-passenger rickety contraption buses that dot its landscape.

    The bus reform initiative is a three-year rolling plan (2017 to 2019) during which the government intends to bring in new buses, made up of maxi-buses, which will take 70 people (30 percent), while medium buses, which will contain 30, will make up the balance (about 3,600 units).

    Many Lagosians have lauded the plan, noting that it would revolutionise intra-city travel experience.They said the new buses would reduce the tension, stress and worries and, ultimately, reduce the volume of vehicles on the roads.

    One of such is Mr Patrick Adenusi, a safety, logistics and transport expert, who described the move as “another maverick touch by the governor”.

    Adenusi, who said the danfos (buses) constituted hazards, commended the governor for bringing buses designed especially for passenger services instead of the re-modified cargo re-fabricated contraptions being used by operators.

    Beginning

    Transportation was largely private-sector driven, with large fleet operators, such as the late Sir Louis Odimegwu Ojukwu, dominating the space with his Ojukwu Transport Limited (OTL).

    The intervention of organised operators in transportation services saw the introduction of more ‘modern’ large-capacity buses that gave birth to molue, which survived many of the state governments until the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration several initiatives pushed them into the fringes.

    One of the early government’s intervention was in the ‘80s, when due to the cancellation of the World Bank-assisted light rail metroline project in 1986, the government diverted the World Bank assistance into vehicular mass transit and injected 300 large-capacity buses managed by the defunct Lagos State Transport Corporation (LSTC), the special purpose vehicle (SPV) established to drive its public sector transportation.

    Though the LSTC failed, from its ashes came Lagos State Bus Assets Limited (LAGBUS), and a much- stronger and adequately-backed Lagos Area Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LAMATA) that spear-headed the state’s strategic transportation masterplan (STMP) since the turn of the millennium.

    New mix

    That was why the governor said he would be rolling out a N100 billion bond to finance its numerous initiatives aimed at making the movement of people and goods painless. Of this, the government will provide N30 billion capital to elicit interest, while investors are to make up the balance.

    Ambode, by concentrating on deepening the roads, seemed to have convinced himself to go by the most plausible alternative that can bring quick returns.

    He said: “We decided that no matter the solution that we want to give the traffic management, we must also now provide a comfortable means of moving people, and encourage the middle class and majority of our people to drop their cars at home. That is the idea with this bus initiative, which is to prepare Lagos to be a global competitor.”

    Before Ambode, getting the upper and middle classes of the society to drop their cars and use other alternatives, have been at the heart of a strategic transportation planning over the past two decades.

    From the era when bicycles made way for vehicles and the roads became less pedestrian-friendly, successive administrations have been trying to introduce initiatives aimed at restraining vehicular density in a state whose total landmass is 999.6 km2.

    Some of the initiatives include the construction of roads with improved Intelligent Traffic Control Systems (ITS), roads with appropriate pedestrian walkways and bicycle lanes have been experimented with.

    The idea is to ensure that more people drop their cars for public transportation, use bicycles or walk to their destinations.

    All these are, in addition to the giant strides being recorded with the incursion of LAMATA in the transportation architecture of the state, have had salutary effect and helped the state manage congestion on its roads.

    Unmindful that the new policy would redirect the government’s focus to the roads, Adenusi said the yellow buses were a shame to the state’s megacity status.

    Arguing that the buses were not built for services to which they had been deployed by operators, Adenusi said many had been killed and others injured.

    Ambode’s promise

    Ambode said it might not be too long for Lagos to blaze a trail in public transportation where the people are given a new deal in vehicular transportation.

    With two of the 10 terminals ready and others in various stages of completion, it may not be too long before Lagosians begin to enjoy a new dividend of comfortable, more organised public transportation that would meet the state’s status as the star of the black race and one of the big economies on the continent.

  • ‘We shall begin test run in October’

    Dr Taiwo Salaam, Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, speaks with ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE on the Bus Reform Initiative. He says a testrun of the initiative, which will revolutionise the state’s transportation architecture, will take off before the end of the year.

    Mercedes Benz would be deklivering 200 buses to Lagos by monthend. Can you shed light on this?

    The buses being expected are connected to his Excellency’s bus reform initiative, which is going to revolutionise transportation architecture in the country. Under the initiative, he intends to bring in 5000 buses. In the first phase, he would bring 800 buses; so the 200 buses that are being expected from Brazil this month end is part of the 800 that would be part of the first tranche. The buses would be coming into the state in tranches. A couple of months ago, the state took delivery of some buses, which are sitting at the Ikeja terminal. They are part of the first tranche and part of the 800, which the state is injecting into the system.

    How many buses do we have on ground?

    I do not have the details right now. But the plan is to take delivery of the 800 buses before the roll out in October. As you can imagine, they would be coming in tranches. The plan is to have the last batch before October.

    How many of the terminals are ready?

    We have two that are ready, which are the TBS and Ikeja. We have others that are in the final stage, for instance the one at Oyingbo is almost completed, the one at Yaba is also almost completed. You have others that are ongoing at Berger, NAHCO, Agege, and Oshodi. Oshodi is going to be completed before the end of the year and it is actually the flagship of the terminals in Lagos. It is in a very advanced stage and the plan is to have all thse infrastructure ready pending when the full operation would kick off. The terminals are the heart of the reform and you need to have all these in place before the buses roll out.

    When will the buses begin operation?

    We must ensure that we have all the critical elements ready before we start full operation. Without this critical operation in place, the roll out may get into avoidable hitches. We also must understand that there should be a pilot stage. You will appreciate that a project of this magnitude must have a pilot phase where you will have the opportunity to address all gray areas and a proper evaluation of the entire operation. The plan is to kick off with a pilot latest by quarter four of the year. By that time, we expect to have a critical chunk of the entire project in place in terms of having the number of buses needed for the first phase, with the drivers well-trained and we would have put in place an enabling technology to drive the whole process. In terms of timing, we are looking at quarter four. We would run the pilot phase, take our learnings, get the commuters buy in and begin the critical advocacy to promote the new phase.

  • Wanted: A successful, efficient rail sector

    With the Federal Government’s renewed commitment to the railway sub-sector, Nigeria is on a sure path to joining the rest of the world in the use of speed train cars, writes ADEIFE OLUKOLADE

    In April 30, 2014, at 1:54 p.m. eastern daylight time, 17 CSX Transportation (CSXT) tank cars of petroleum crude oil derailed in Lynchburg, Virginia United States (U.S.)

    Three of the derailed cars were partially submerged in the James River. One was breached and released about 29,868 gallons of crude oil into the river, some of which caught fire. No injuries to the public or crew were reported. At the time of the accident, it was cloudy and raining lightly; the temperature was 53°F (11.67 °C). The CSXT estimated the damages at $1.2million, not including environmental remediation.

    Using the railroad for transportation of people and goods has its advantages, especially when managed properly. However, it carries with it several risks, but when properly managed the railroad drives an economy that can deliver greatness and economic growth.

    The Nigerian government in the last couple of years has worked tirelessly on improving the railway sector, an effort that is gradually paying off, we have seen the emergence of the beautiful passenger rail projects and some proposed cargo rail tracks picking up pace.

    Many are of the opinion that with a working railway sector, there will be a decrease in the traffic gridlock caused by road haulage trucks, reduction in accidents caused by trailers, and hopefully avoidance of loss of lives.

    While these are good things to hope for, we must come to the understanding that a working rail system whether passenger or cargo depends on basic factors that will determine its success or failure.

    From the top story of 2014, which happened in United States, this was not the first accident of its kind and the impact was minimal when you consider the product transported, location and the time of the accident. A lot of factors had played part in the reduction of the impact.  Years of data collection on previous accidents that helped in designing the rail cars differently, good maintenance system and records, top notch emergency response that evacuated a whole community before exposure to the primary incident and secondary exposure.

    Also a community void of greed, what they thought of was safety for lives and property not rushing to the scene to scoop crude.  All these factors and many more contributed to the reduction in the impact of this accident.

    A similar incident happened on July 6, 2013, a freight train carrying crude oil travelled into Lac-Megantic, Quebec Canada. This train derailed downtown and exploded, killing 47 people. An investigation by the appropriate authorities identified many causes and contributory factors. Some are: maintenance  issues, inadequate training, failure to  set enough hand brakes and leaving train unattended (human error). Since this accident  new regulations were put in place to avoid a similar incident such as using reinforced cars to ship oil (the type used in the U.S incident above)

    As Nigeria advances it aspirations to develop the rail sector, we need to remember that most advanced nations are gradually moving from the old locomotive systems that had its faults and are using innovations to limit exposure thereby reducing accidents.

    First, the speed that trains travel are getting faster in this age of amazon fast delivery, drone technology  and drive through services, it will only make sense to start our rail system at the pace of the technology available in the world around us  if we want any economic dividend from the multi-billion projects. It may not be sufficient to only have the infrastructures, but infrastructures that add value to the generations to come.

    When we talk about advancement in technology, here is an example of a recent scenario from Chicago, Illinois U.S. A typical drive to O’Hare airport in Chicago could last one hour or more by road, this is a similar distance from Lekki Peninsula to Muritala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria. Currently, the Chicago Transit Authority, a public transportation agency,  advice people to travel by train and reduce the travel to about forty five minutes and you will be directly at the terminals. However, Elon Musk of the Boring Company proposed to build a tunnel to accommodate a fleet of self-guided, electromagnetically-propelled pods zipping between the Loop’s unused Block 37 “superstation” and the airport. Reaching speeds of 125-150 miles per hour, the system aims to make the trip in just 12 minutes.

    While the last example may be out of the imagination of some of readers the cost of the project may be the same with present day Nigerian projects and if we  cannot use pods to transport goods and people in Nigeria we should not settle for the worst diesel propelled locomotives.

    The key test of a transport system is its ability to deliver passengers or goods to their respective destination in as short a time as is reasonably possible, with due regards to issues of safety and quality of service.

    Therefore, for a successful rail project, with a desire to compete and be profitable, the type of infrastructures used will determine how far we can go literarily and figuratively.  How many times have we decided to buy a new computer instead of upgrading the memory, but with a failed rail project a new one will cost almost if not more as the initial cost, for the economic savvy professionals it makes absolute sense to do it right the first time.

  • Lagos traffic and LASTMA

    Many motorists believed that the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), despite perceived hitches, have changed the narratives on Lagos roads, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

    With over three million cars and 100,000 commercial vehicles on the roads, (when the national average is 11 vehicles per kilometre), Lagos records an average of 227 vehicles per kilometre daily.

    The above figure is compounded by the United Nations’ data that 86 people enter Lagos every hour.

    According to the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), out of 10.6 million vehicles registered in the country in 2016, over three million are in Lagos, plying 9,100 roads. This huge vehicular presence is further complicated by the unregulated activities of over 200,000 minibuses, thousands of commercial motorcycles and tricycles, coupled with an influx of over 10, 000 people daily to Lagos for various reasons.

    Since inception in July 2000, LASTMA has worked tirelessly to promote sanity and safety on Lagos roads. The idea was to manage the traffic situation, which has turned movement  round the city into a nightmare.

    However, while some residents are divided over the methods being deployed by LASTMA,  others believed the methods have yielded results in certain areas.

    Many motorists also have tales of LASTMA’s high handedness in managing traffic in the Lagos metropolis to tell. LASTMA’s enforcement, which is seen by a section of the people as revenue driven to a large extent, has been counter-productive.

    To address these perceived shortcomings, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode embarked on a comprehensive overhauling of traffic management architecture in the state with a view to repositioning LASTMA to embrace 21st Century traffic control mechanism. With the new development, LASTMA has jettisoned the outdated approach to traffic management.

    Consequently, against hitherto draconian enforcements that have pitched the agency against motorists and other road users, LASTMA came up with new traffic control and enforcement protocols, which are premised on civility to road users, especially motorists.

    The result is that LASTMA officials in the last three years have de-emphasised vehicle apprehension (except where extremely necessary), unwarranted rash decisions such as towing of vehicles, removals of number plates and the indiscriminate imposition of fines on impounded vehicles.

    To further strengthen the resolve to evolve new civil template for the agency, the government also introduced Automated Booking Machine, which ensures that all fines are paid directly to banks and duly receipted, as part of the new enforcement initiatives for traffic management.

    The result was a dramatic improvement in gridlock patterns. According to a global report, most African states recorded 15 per cent increase in traffic congestion between 2015 and 2016, while North America has five per cent, Europe nine per cent, Asia and Oceanic 12 per cent and South America seven per cent, a report cited by www.theguardian.ng, stated.

    Juxtaposed with traffic situation around the world, there was 15 per cent increase in Africa and 10 per cent in the rest of the world. The implication of the report is that many African cities are yet to develop driving culture and standard traffic laws with efficient and functional traffic management institutions in line with best global practices.

    For Lagos State, the new position is a reflection of the huge resources that the state government, over the years, has invested into traffic management. Current positive traffic signals from across the state is not a feat achieved through miracles, but product of research, rigorous planning, human capacity and institutional building, coupled with massive investment in roads infrastructure.

    Since inception, LASTMA has been working at achieving its mandate of managing traffic in the state. Though Lagos has the smallest landmass in the country, the state, no doubt, has the most challenging traffic situation in the country.

    With over three million cars and 100,000 commercial vehicles on its roads as stated earlier, Lagos, daily records an average of 227 vehicles per every kilometre of roads. This scenario, which has continued a geometric growth year-on-year, has left the government little choice than to develop scientific transportation management alternatives, part of which informed the establishment of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), to manage traffic on its 9,100 road network.

  • New agenda for water transportation

    Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode last Friday opened a new vista when he unveiled an agenda to rev up water transportation. It may be the needed game changer in the gridlock in the nation’s financial capital, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

    Of the three modes of transportation – land, air and water, the latter has remained the least developed in Lagos State.

    Since the Second Republic when former Governor Lateef Jakande invested in the sector, charting and dredging water routes and buying seven ferries to ply the waterways, the sector has gone comatose.

    The establishment of the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) did not change anything, as it was almost always up in arms against the Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), the federal regulator, over who controls the waterways.

    But last week, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode unveiled a new master plan for the sector.

    It was the first water transportation sector roundtable.The event, held at the Eko Hotels and Suites, in Lagos, not only unveiled the plan for water transport, but sought the assistance of multinational organisations in cleaning up the waterways.

    Ambode said the event  was aimed at identifying new techniques and technologies as well as best practices to sustain water transportation.

    “The technologies to be deployed,’’ the governor added, ‘’should be such that would contribute to reduction of carbon emissions, improving health and safety of commuters and contribute to the goals of the Paris agreement.’’

    He continued: “The objective was to draw policy experts and development partners and investors to the state’s short- term 2012 -2015 Development Plan, with the purpose of ensuring that the state drives a transportation policy that meets the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Goal II.”

    Assuring operators, investors and stakeholders that none would lose his space in the sector, Ambode reiterated the government’s determination to pioneer the deployment of new ideas and infrastructure that would enable the water sector to move with ease and plan efficiently.

    For stakeholders, the event could not have come at a better time, affording operators to know what the state plans to do with its vast water resources that have continued to be a cesspool of waste. From the Badagry Creek, to the Omu River, the state has 210-kilometre creeks and water bodies that have been begging for investment.

    From Badagry Creek, Ologe Lagoon, Yewa River, Commodore Channel (Lagos Harbour) and Five-Cowrie Creek; and from Lagos Lagoon, Lekki Lagoon to Omu River, Iyagbe, Kuramo, Apase, Epe and Mahin Lagoons, the Lagos wetlands are flanked by tidal wetlands and swamps, with the lagoons, which  are separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a long sand spit of five km wide, which stretched for more than 50 km and three to 13 km wide.

    Even the governor admitted that water transportation, though neglected for a long time, remained key to resolving traffic congestion in the state.

    “The chaotic traffic situation in some parts of the state in recent times and the pressure on the road with attendant danger to lives and property, made the need to forge ahead with the reforms in the water sector more compelling,” he said.

    According to him, “the question to ask is what has brought us to this despicable situation, where the only mode of transportation for over 22 million people is road and the road itself is chaotic. In the last three years, we have been fighting traffic and, unfortunately in the last two weeks, we have seen what has happened in Apapa and what we have been trying to do. Just about three weeks ago, we saw what happened with regards to the Otedola Bridge disaster.

    “Out of the over 22 million people, almost eight million are walking on the streets every second, and according to the United Nations 2016 statistics, 86 people enter Lagos every one hour, which is the largest in the world. So, if other states are failing, more people would migrate to Lagos and that means maybe right now, there are 120 people entering Lagos not wanting to go back and the only mode of transportation we have for them is just the road. That is why we are coming up with other modes.

    “1/5th of Lagos is water. We have the smallest geographical space in Nigeria of 3577 square kilometres with 25 per cent of that being water. So, you are asking yourself, why in the history of Lagos and in the history of Nigeria, that we did we not just think of other modes of transportation?”

    The governor said it was instructive to note that being surrounded by water, many parts of the state could be connected within few minutes.

    “I was in Apapa yesterday and I looked at the gridlock and it made sense to me that it is just five minutes ride between Apapa and Marina and so the question is can’t we create barges that can take our cars and then push them to Marina and back to Apapa in just five minutes and so in no time everybody is in their offices instead of going through the traffic?

    “Between Badore and Ikorodu is just 10 minutes. This is something that has been waiting for a long time and I just think this is the right time for us to do it because those coming behind us will not forgive us if we don’t take advantage of all the things we need to do to develop water transportation,” Ambode said.

    The governor added that major channelisation and dredging, shoreline protection and construction of jetties, among others, were ongoing as part of efforts to boost water transportation.

    He said the roundtable was basically to come up with sustainable framework to encourage people to adopt water transportation as an alternative and faster mode.

    Wooing investors to take advantage of the reforms in the water sector, Ambode said it was instructive that in the last 36 months, more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) had come into the state largely due to the transparency and credibility to encourage investors, assuring that his administration would continually create the enabling environment for businesses to thrive.

    Earlier, Commissioner for Transportation Mr Ladi Lawanson said the essence of the roundtable was to evolve an effective framework, in partnership with the private sector and relevant stakeholders, to play up water transport to divert pressure from the roads.

    Also, a major player in the sector, Mr Ganiyu Balogun, who is the managing director of Tarzan Ferry Services, commended Ambode for his commitment to reving up water transport and harnessing its potential for the people.

    He said stakeholders were aware of the challenges in the sector and were willing to partner the state government to address the issues for the benefit of the state.

    There were presentations from the University of Lagos, United States Mission in Nigeria, Trade and Investment Department of the British High Commission and Paramount Maritime Holdings of South Africa, which expressed their readiness to partner the government to boost water transport.

    Meanwhile, the government has  sealed a deal with a consortium of multi-national companies, Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance, to rid the waterways and water bodies of filth with specific focus on plastics.

    The agreement will also bring about the setting up of a world-class collection and recycling framework for plastic waste.

    The consortium include the Nigeria Bottling Company (NBC), the 7-Up Bottling Company, Nestle and Nigerian Breweries, among others, who will invest in boats to collect waste from the waterways to protect the ecosystem and boost water transport.